Mass spectrometric characterizations of ions generated in RF magnetron discharges during sputtering of silver in Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe gases

The article reports mass spectrometric characterizations of ions generated in RF magnetron discharges generated using silver targets and Ne, Ar, Kr and Xe gases. Both the amount of ions and ion energies in magnetron discharges were investigated. The following ions X⁺, Ag⁺, (XAg) ⁺, X₂ ⁺, Ag₂ ⁺, X ⁺⁺ and Ag⁺⁺ were found in the RF discharges; here X = Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe is the inert gas atom and Ag is the silver atom. The amount of individual ions, their energies and ion energy distribution (IED) functions as a function of sputtering gas pressure were measured. It is shown that the sputtering gas pressure strongly influences the generation of ions, their amount and energy in the RF magnetron discharges. The knowledge of the energies and amounts of individual ions is of a key importance in the deposition of thin films with controlled properties using RF magnetron discharges.